"This is a new issue,
and we didn't have a policy, so we discussed it this week and will finalize our
decision next week," said Birthright's Mark.

"The direction is to
forbid them from being at funerals because to attend a funeral, you have to
understand the fuller context of what is happening here. These people are here
for the first and they don't have that understanding."

The conflict between Israel
and Hamas did not stop Ms. Faria and more than 6,000 other
participants in Birthright from traveling to Israel in the past month,
Birthright officials say, but some 3,000 out of an anticipated 31,000
participants have canceled their trips with the program this season, which
runs from May to September.

Former IDF chief rabbi,
Brig.- Gen. (res.) Avihai Ronsky, told The Jerusalem
Post that there were several methods of establishing the a soldier’s death
without having found his corpse.

… Another former IDF chief
rabbi Brig.-Gen. (res.) Yisrael Weiss told Channel 2 that in each
case a special panel is established with the military rabbinate including the
serving chief rabbi, as well as the rabbinate’s expert in burial and the
identification of fallen soldiers and other relevant specialists.

The IDF chief rabbi is legally able to make
the final decision on the death of a soldier, and he then informs the head of
the IDF Manpower Division who briefs the IDF Chief of Staff, following which
the family is notified.

Ronsky said that when a
final decision is made it is a professional evaluation and 100 percent
accurate, saying that there is no chance that such a person remains alive after
the IDF chief rabbi has pronounced him dead.

Forensic findings are only
part of the evidence used by rabbis in the Israel Defense Forces, whose
authorization is needed to pronounce a soldier dead. The military rabbinate
also examines medical reports and operational debriefings.

In the case of Goldin,
a special panel headed by Peretz, the chief military rabbi, also examined
the details of the battle in Rafah, in which the officer had been snatched by
Hamas fighters into a tunnel.

… “In [Sgt. Oron Shaul's]
case no body parts were found, but a clear conclusion about his death was
reached,” said Rabbi Yisrael Weiss, the chief military rabbi from
2000 to 2006.

The chief military rabbi is the final authority on the status of a dead IDF
soldier. The task becomes complex when the bodies of soldiers are not
recovered, little forensic evidence remains, and there are no eyewitnesses.

In the absence of a body,
the level of proof required by the rabbis to pronounce a death is often higher
than that of the legal system. It’s also sometimes different from the
conclusions reached by the intelligence services. There are also political
considerations and the wishes of the families to be taken into consideration.

The commander of the army’s
storied Givati Brigade says that studying Torah “protects the people
of Israel more than anything else.”

IDF Col. Ofer Winter
said in an interview with the latest issue of the ultra-Orthodox newspaper Mishpacha (Family)
that “anyone who can sit and study [Torah] – it’s his duty to do so. In a time
of war the thing the people of Israel require most is for Torah students to sit
and study the Torah more intensively,” he says.

Winter made headlines three
weeks ago, at the start of Operation Protective Edge, when he declared “holy
war” on the Palestinians in an official IDF dispatch to his troops.

Despite the continuing war
in Israel against Hamas, the Palestinian terrorist organization, Rabbi Uri Pilichowski and
his wife, Aliza, and their five children, moved from Boca Raton to Israel
two weeks ago.

The Pilichowskis felt
compelled to continue with their plans to move to Israel — despite the current
crisis — to show support for the country they consider home.

Uri told WPBF-25:
"There's danger everywhere, but I'm confident God will protect us, and I'm
confident that Israel is the safest place for my family to be."

Mourning on the Ninth of Av
in this day and age flies in the face of both secular Zionism and religious
Zionism. It contradicts the right of Jews around the world to decide where they
prefer to live. The exile is over, and the temple has not been rebuilt because
we don't want to do it.

The only ideologies that can
justify continuing this observance are those that see democratic Israel as a
heretic entity defying the majesty of God on earth. But if you are not a member
of the Eda Haredit or a settler from Yitzhar, how can you
mourn on Tisha B'Av in good conscience?

The PANIM For Jewish
Renaissance organization is scheduled hold a conference dedicated to the
concept of social unity in Israel on Tisha Be’av, which falls this
year on Monday night and Tuesday.

The organizers said that the
principle has taken on increased significance at present due to the hostilities
between the State of Israel and the Hamas regime in Gaza, and the purpose of
the event will be to promote the importance of tolerance within Israel, and the
unity between the different sectors of the population.

IFCJ, which provides
assistance to needy Jews both in Israel and abroad, raised more than $3 million
in the first two weeks after IDF Operation Protective Edge began; between its
donors in Canada and the US, the IFCJ's annual income stands at $135 million.

… But, the rabbi says, the
IFCJ’s charity has not always been welcome due to the religious sensibilities
of some in Israel.

“It’s very hard to get
across that this is funds from Christians,” he explains.

The IFCJ has run into
criticism from certain demographics in Israel; Eckstein admits that “religious
segments in Israel attack us” to some extent because they are “consistently
wary of legitimizing Christianity.”

I’d like to be able to say
that June 16 was an important day for women’s rights in Israel. After all, just
a year ago Israel’s Attorney General published a report for advancing women’s
rights that included a clause reminding municipalities of their obligation to
remove any illegal and discriminatory signs, and here we were insuring that the
good laws of the land were being enforced.

Unfortunately it was more of an
embarrassment. The statements by the city’s representatives brought no
honor to our city, nor to the State of Israel, nor to the Jewish people

Accountants said claims
surged when it was realised U.S. nationals living abroad were
eligible for the credit, beginning in the ultra-Orthodox community and
spreading from there.

Ultra-Orthodox families are
typically large, but men usually have no formal employment, devoting their
lives to religious study on small Israeli state stipends. Fathers are therefore
ineligible for the allowance, which is worth $1,000 per child to middle income
wage earners every year. In many cases, mothers are either not U.S. citizens or
earn too little to make a claim.

The
initiative seems to be riding the wave of renewed religious interest caused by
Operation Protective Edge, which Rabbi Chaim Druckman, who heads the network of
the men’s and women’s yeshivas that belong to the Bnei Akiva religious Zionist
youth movement, described as “God’s war.”

“There’s no doubt that there is a connection to Protective Edge,”
says Richman.

“The operation’s objective was not just restoring calm and
defending the people, but also to be a light unto the nations, to bring the
divine presence. Israel’s national vision is not just to function properly, but
also to bring light into the world. Some believe that the Temple will be built
when there is unconditional love. We’ve made it there, to the vision of
Israel’s prophets. Like John Lennon, of blessed memory, said: ‘Give peace a
chance.’”